Security News > 2020 > June > Nuclear missile contractor hacked in Maze ransomware attack
The US is protected by what's known as a nuclear triad: a three-pronged attack force that consists of land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear missiles on submarines, and aircraft equipped with nuclear bombs and missiles.
One of the triad's legs - the land-based LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile - has been kicked by hackers who've inflicted Maze ransomware on the computer network of a Northrup Grumman contractor.
Unauthorized access to data about intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles would be bad enough, but depending on what the attackers accessed, the attack could have yet more serious repercussions, given Westech's client list.
Maze ransomware is a new-ish ransomware strain that's also been used recently against Cognizant, a large US IT services company that disclosed that it had fallen victim in April.
As SophosLabs described last month in a report - titled Maze ransomware: extorting victims for 1 year and counting - Maze has been in the news quite frequently recently, notably because the gang who created it have been in the vanguard of a new wave of "Double-whammy" ransomware attacks.
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